07/12/2022
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 00:48 Welthungerhilfe: “If you only have three dollars to survive, you cannot pay double” +++
According to Welthungerhilfe, the sharp increase in food prices is exacerbating the crisis in many countries. Droughts like the current ones in the Horn of Africa or last year in Madagascar show the fatal consequences of climate change, Secretary-General Mathias Mogge explains in the organisation’s 2021 annual report: “Anyone who only survives on just under three US dollars a day can expect the price of bread to double just can’t afford it.” Millions of people are on the brink of starvation because families have no resources left. The higher prices hit those who were already among the poorest the hardest. Armed conflicts are also driving more and more people into hunger and need: “Together with our European alliance Alliance 2015, we are supporting the needy in Ukraine and refugees in neighboring countries such as Poland and the Republic of Moldova,” explains Welthungerhilfe President Marlehn Thieme.
+++ 23:45 Only 20 percent of the civilians remain in Donetsk +++
According to the region’s governor, Pavlo Kirilenko, 80 percent of the residents of the Donetsk region have fled. Due to the shelling by Russian troops in the past few weeks, the majority of the people have now been brought to safety, reports the “Kyiv Independent”. According to Kirilenko, around 340,000 people are still in the region. Last week, Kirilenko again called on the remaining population to get to safety after the Russian troops – after conquering the Luhansk region – focused on the Donetsk region and continued their offensive there. Attacks with rockets have recently repeatedly resulted in civilian casualties in the Donetsk region.
+++ 22:49 According to the US, Iran wants to deliver drones to Russia +++
According to the United States, Iran is preparing to deliver up to several hundred drones to Russia. Among them are those that could be armed, says National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. There is also information that Iran is preparing to train Russian soldiers on the weapon systems.
+++ 22:04 Habeck on Nord Stream 1: “I have no secret information” +++
Economics Minister Robert Habeck is hoping for more gas supplies from Russia once maintenance work on the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 has ended. “I have no secret information, either in one direction or the other,” said the Green politician in a previously published interview the ARD “Daily Topics”. “It’s possible. There’s also a chance that it won’t happen. We’ll have to wait and see.” Nothing has been delivered via the last most important route for Russian natural gas to Germany since the morning. According to Nord Stream AG, the work should last until July 21. It is said that no gas will be transported through the pipeline to Germany in these ten days.
+++ 21:27 Attorney General: Investigations into war crimes can take years +++
Attorney General Peter Frank dampens hopes of rapid success in prosecuting war crimes in the Ukraine war. “Please don’t expect that we will have identified any suspects tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” said Frank that evening at the annual press reception of the federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe. In international criminal law, you need “staying power”. He draws parallels to the Syrian civil war that began in 2011. The first charges were not filed in Germany until 2019. Ten years had passed before the first final judgment. “In particular, there are still no personal investigations at all in the Ukraine war,” says Frank. His authority had initiated so-called structural investigations in March. The aim is to first secure as much evidence as possible without specific suspects.
+++ 20:51 Russian mayor killed in explosion of his car +++
The Russian mayor of a village occupied by Russian troops in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine has been killed in an attack on his car. Yevgeny Yunakov from the village of Veliky Burluk in north-eastern Ukraine died after a car bomb exploded, the state news agency Tass reports. According to Tass, the recently established Russian “military civil administration” in the region described the explosion as a “terrorist attack” carried out by Ukrainian authorities. Russian troops are occupying parts of the Kharkiv region, and the city of the same name remains under Ukrainian control.
+++ 20:39 Kuleba on Russian passports: “Incompatible with international law” +++
The government in Kyiv condemns the easier access to Russian citizenship for all Ukraine announced by Moscow. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the move “another encroachment on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity that is incompatible with the norms and principles of international law.” “Ukrainians don’t need Putin’s citizenship, and attempts to enforce it by force are doomed to failure,” says Kuleba. The decree is “worthless” and proof of “Putin’s aggressive desires”. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously published a decree stating: “All citizens of Ukraine have the right to apply for citizenship of the Russian Federation under a simplified procedure.”
+++ 20:09 network agency boss: situation is unpredictable +++
The President of the Federal Network Agency currently sees no way of fulfilling the industry’s desire for predictability. “I understand this wish, which is often brought to us,” says Klaus Müller on the “Phoenix” station. However, one simply does not know in which situation and under what circumstances a gas emergency will occur. “The situation is so unpredictable that every promise is subject to the condition that it cannot be kept. And making promises that are not covered would be an even worse decision.”
You can read earlier developments of the Ukraine war here.